nepal’s ‘cash’ and ‘dash’ maoists
TRANSCRIPT
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became astronomical. The professional politician could not in any way meet these
obligations with his legitimate income. "ribery and corruption therefore became a way
of life.
n different societies, the level of corruption and the methodologies were different
depending on the level of development and sophistication of the economy and the
society. "ut there is a growing animosity against the professional political class who
are seen more and more as a corrupt bunch of individuals whose only intention is to
perpetuate them in power.
*e+riwal phenomenon
The most recent e$ample of this of course is the *e+riwal phenomenon.
The scion of an anti corruption movement, r+un *e+riwal, ine$plicably
but in some ways predictably, bro!e away from his -uru nna 'aare&s
campaign to force the politicians to enact ndia&s longstanding, four/
decade/old o! al "ill to counter bribery and corruption from outside
the political system and decided to ta!e the battle to the politicians
milieu by contesting the state elections for the elhi egislative
ssembly in ndia.
3ot only did *e+riwal and his am dmi arty 5 contest the
elections, *e+riwal himself decided to contest the constituency of three/
term )hief 6inister of elhi, the formidable )ongress )hief 6inister
7heila i$it in her upmar!et and affluent constituency. The ndian
political class moc!ed at &s chances and even some of nna 'aare&s supporters
e$pressed scepticism. astounded everybody by winning over 20 seats and
becoming the second largest party in the elhi egislative ssembly. *e+riwal himself
resoundingly defeated i$it in her upper class constituency. Within days the panic!ed
ndian arliament enacted the o! al aw8
When the "J, which had the largest number of 6s but still a minority, refused to
ta!e office, saying they had no mandate to form a government, the )ongress which
had a mere eight members, offered conditional support to the to form a
government. When the was reluctant, the ndian political class taunted the saying that they were afraid to ta!e office as they could not implement their election
promises.
*e+riwal called the )ongress& bluff, after consulting his supporters, and assumed office
and within 24 hours provided a 9uota of free water and subsidised electricity to the
elhi voters. The ndian political class and analysts are watching with a mi$ture of
awe, fear and relief the emergence of this *e+riwal phenomenon in ndian politics and
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how it will affect the national arliamentary elections scheduled for 2014.
3epal
n 3epal also, which has not had a government for a long time
due to the politicians in the )onstituent ssembly not being able
to agree on acceptable constitutional principles, a cynical
population has grown to ta!e a dim view of the political class.
The 6aoist parties specifically, which fought a prolonged war
against the 3epali monarchy, has come in for particular criticism.
The )ommunist arty of 3epal/6aoist )3/65 are !nown as
%ash 6aoists,& because they use a dash rather than brac!ets to
punctuate the party name. :n the other hand the members of the
mainstream ;nified )ommunist arty of 3epal 6aoist5 <;)3
65= are labelled %)ash 6aoists& due to their success in e$torting
money from businessmen, among other e$tractive related
processes, if you get what mean8
:n 1> 3ovember 201?, 3epal once again elected a )onstituent
assembly. This was seen as the only way forward after the
multiple traumas 3epal had faced, ranging from the prolonged
civil war and the murder of the @oyal family by the )rown rince
in an incident which is cynically branded as the *athmandu
7olution to a dictatorship.
ll previous constituent assemblies, since the ouster of the
6onarchy in 200A, have failed to agree on a constitutional
arrangement. series of unstable coalitions have succeeded each other in power
since the end of the civil war and the 200A election of the first )onstituent ssembly.
That ssembly&s mandate e$pired in 2012, and since 6arch this year 3epal&s )hief
Justice has been running the country as rime 6inister of an interim government.
*unda i$it, (ditor of the 3epal Times and political analyst and satirist has gone on
record saying, BWe got ourselves all tangled into !nots and deadloc!ed politically for
the last five years. We need to get our political house in order.C6onarchy ousted
The Dederal emocratic @epublic of 3epal is a landloc!ed sovereign state of 14E,1A1
s9, !ilometres with a population of around 2E million people. 3early two million of
these are wor!ing in foreign lands and remitting funds to 3epal.
3epal was a monarchy throughout most of its history, ruled by the 7hah ynasty form
1EFA, when rithvi 3arayan 7hah unified its many small !ingdoms, including tithe one,
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in which is located umbini, where -autama the "uddha was born, in the fertile Terai
region bordering ndia.
few years ago the descendants of the 7hah dynasty were all murdered by the )rown
rince while they were at dinner at the alace in *athmandu, and the monarchy was
ousted after several wee!s of mass protestG tithe monarchy came to an end and 3epal
became a federal emocratic @epublic.
7ince then the political class has been unable to agree on a political arrangement to
balance sectarian, caste, religious and communal differences.
Two main issues
The two main issues facing tithe current )onstituent ssembly areH how far to go in
giving the state a federal character and what form of government 3epal&s new
constitution will choose # a residential one or a arliamentary one.
The ;)3 65 wants anything between 11 and 14 provinces to be created on the
basis of nationalities spread across the country and an e$ecutive resident directly
elected. The other view is that too many provinces created on tithe basis of caste,
community and other local identities will wea!en the nation, they feel that the number
of provinces should be limited to seven.
The spo!esperson for the 3epali )ongress has saidH BWe don&t want caste, religion or
communal identity to be the basis of federalism. That !ind of federalism will destroy
both 3epali identity and national unity.C The %cash 6aoists do not agree, they sayH BDor
240 years 3epal has been a monolithic state and society under a monarchy and ruling
elite of "rahmins and )hetris, who represented only 10I of tithe people. 3ow is the
time to create a multi identity state that will represent all the oppressed nationalities,
oppressed gender and other historically disadvantaged people.C
The )ash 6aoists
6eanwhile the )ash 6aoists are having a hard time living down their reputation of
having immense amounts of illegally e$tracted cash. 'isila ami, a former 6inister and
wife of "aburam "hattarai, former rime 6inister and 6aoist ideologue, dismisses the
allegation that she is the most corrupt politician in 3epalH Blease don&t tal! about that.
&m sic! of answering 9uestions about it,C she says, referring to allegations ofcorruption against her. 7he accuses the other group of 6aoists # the %ash 6aoists& #
of spreading the canard about her. ami saysH Bctually they have more money than
us.C
"ut the leader of the )ash 6aoists ushpa *amal ahal # better !nown as
rachanda, his guerrilla nom de plume # is alleged to be a man of substantial wealth
now. 6aybe to manifest this, rachanda contested the )onstituent ssembly elections
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from two constituencies and three other members of his family, including his wife and
daughter, also contested seats.
)ritics trace the source of the 6aoists& money power to 3epal&s 10 year insurrection,
sayingH BThey looted ?00!g of gold and hundreds of crores of rupees from the ban!s in
those years. They used the money in 200A and added to it in their years in the
government. (ven now they e$tort money from businessmen and common people.C
ami dismissed all this tal!, sayingH BWe want to ma!e 3epal a cash nation, a
prosperous nation. "ut we are not cash party.C
ll this tal! of constitutional arrangements and allegations of corruption against
professional politicians are almost unintelligible to the ordinary long/suffering 3epali.
They as!H BWhat does this all mean to us who can barely surviveK o you !now even
the ordinary variety of rice costs EL 3epali5 rupeesKC
7ri an!a
This growing contempt for the political class by the cynical ordinary voter is being
manifested in many ways the world over. Dor e$ample, in 7ri an!a, the opposition
Tamil 3ational lliance T35 e$ecuted a master stro!e in selecting an hitherto non/
political retired 7upreme )ourt Judge as its candidate for )hief 6inister for the
recently/held 3orthern rovincial )ouncil elections.
The )hief 6inister, once elected, reinforced this view when he, repeatedly in public,
told and retold the story of recently phoning up a friend who had been elected to
political office to congratulate him and after e$changing pleasantries, had as!ed him
what his priorities were. The stunning answer had been, %now that am in power, to
recover all the money had to spend to get elected8&
@evolt against officialdom and highhandedness
:pposition to this !ind of thin!ing is what drove nna 'aare&s o! al movement in
ndia, from which was cloned the and *e+riwal. darsh 7hastri, until recently a
6umbai/based top e$ecutive for pple )orporation in ndia, has resigned from his +ob
to +oin the , sayingH BThe mood of the people is changingG young people want
responsive government.C
The (conomic Times of ndia in an editorial saidH BThe anti establishment mood todayis strong and the has generated such euphoria among youngsters and the middle
class that ndia may be at an inflection point.C
ipan!ar -upta, a sociologist and author, saysH BThis is a revolt against officialdom
and highhandednessG it&s the same !ind of thing you saw in Tahrir Muare in )airo and
Tunisia, but not against one dictator. t&s against 1,000 tyrants that parade in the garb
of democracy.C sho! 6ali!, a 3ew elhi/based political commentator, saysH B*e+riwal
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represents the anger of the little man.C
This is what drives the ;* party in "ritain, which opposes unlimited immigration into
"ritain, which sees the greed of big business for cheap imported labour, driving the
"ritish politicians to allow low cost (ast (uropean labour into "ritain. This is also why
the average 7ingaporean opposes the -overnment&s plans to allow more and more
migrants into 7ingapore to provide cheap labour for their labour intensive industries
li!e the construction sector and thereby depress local 7ingaporeans& earning capacity.
n (urope the opposition to immigrant labour is driven by the same thin!ing. The
insensitiveness of the political class to the concerns of the %ordinary man& # the am
admi of the in 'indi is the driving force. The Tea arty, faction of the @epublican
arty in the ;7, is also driven by this sentiment. There are similar political entities
driven by the same sentiment in many other countries, other than of ndia, the
;* of "ritain and the Tea arty faction of ;7&s @epublican arty. Dor e$ample
3orway&s rogress arty, 'ungary&s Jobbi!, Drance&s 3ational Dront, -reece&s -olden
awn, etc.
n 7outh *orea software tycoon hn )heol/soo is preparing to launch a new political
party to %change the paradigm of *orea&s economy&. The novice politician, who pulled
out of the recent *orean residential election out of fear of splitting the liberal vote,
has an opportunity to capitalise on the anger of the ordinary voter against an
increasingly dysfunctional government. Dor three months the *orean arliament has
failed to pass even a single piece of legislation8
Three common characteristics
-enerally it can be said that all these so/called %insurgent& political parties have three
common characteristicsH that the nations ruling elites have lost touch with the common
man&s needs and aspirations, that government is a bloated, corrupt , nepotistic , self
serving dinosaur, not at all %fit for purpose&, that government is controlled by a nepotist,
politico/business ne$us who are only interested in ensuring that corporate and their
profits are ma$imised, even allowing uncontrolled immigration to fuel the economy
with a cheap wor! force.
The cynicism of the ordinary voter against the political class is fuelled by one or moreof these issues may be in some instances combined with other more parochial factors.
Dor e$ample the whole reform movement in ndia was driven by the dilly dallying of the
political class with establishing the o! al, for 40 years, as they were reluctant to
have an independent autonomous body to investigate the corruption the political class
and the bureaucracy. (ven what has been finally set up by law has been described by
&s *e+riwal as a BJo!e alC as it is considered too wea! and not independent
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enough.
:n the other hand, merica&s Tea arty has its roots in a venerable tradition of small
government conservatism. n (urope these fringe political groups are small rebellious
outfits, some from the far right. They are angry people, har!ing bac! to simpler times.
They worry about immigration. They belong to the s9ueeed middle class, people who
feel that the political elite at the top, the creamy layer and the unprincipled free
loading, social welfare, scroungers at the bottom of the pyramid, the sediment, are
prospering, at the e$pense of ordinary wor!ing people.
They also believe that the centres of national power are dominated by large numbers
of professional politicians and bureaucrats who are corrupt and constantly coming up
with schemes to ruin ordinary hardwor!ing people&s lives and get themselves re/
elected. These groups of insurgents are prospering because governments are corrupt
andNor have performed badly.
-overnments have encouraged consumers to borrow, let the ban!s run wild, instead
!eeping the financial sector on a tight regulatory leash and not crac!ed down on
corruption and nepotism. :rdinary people have paid the price for these (uropean
follies, in higher ta$es, unemployment, benefit cuts and pay freees.
refreshing e$periment
The am admi e$periment in ndia is a refreshing e$periment at restabilising the
credibility of government. The political class in all our countries have to regain the
confidence of the ordinary voters. n the same way that one analyst called for those
responsible for producing the national statistics for 7ri an!a should undergo an
internalised process and credibility e$ercise to restore their own credibility among us
ordinary mortals, who are fed their rampantly false numbers on a daily basis, after one
of their own disclosed how the numbers were fraudulently coo!ed upwards8
lso allegations of massive corruption, li!e for e$ample the 6&s office issuing letters
to get concessions for the release of a container containing hashish, do not help. 7o
also the more recent manifestation in 7ri an!a, in local government authorities, where
a revolt by the low/ran!ing elected members, against systemic flaws in the system and
rampant corruption, the benefits of which are not Bdemocratised,C has led to a series ofdefeats of local authority budgets.
7imilar hostility is reported between the %family,& the %old guard& and the %recent +umpers&
at a higher level. 'ow the development and emergence of these so/called %insurgent&
political groups will finally wor! itself out, in the political environment of these
countries, is difficult to predict. :bserving the ongoing political process will be very
interesting.
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:ne hopes that at last the long/suffering 3epali people are finally blessed with a
constitutional arrangement which could fully accommodate their political aspirations,
notwithstanding the machinations of the %)ash& and %ash& 6aoists. t will help us all if
the in 3ew elhi, led by the redoubtable *e+riwal, succeeds in setting a higher
standard of behaviour for elected politicians and in this year&s ndian arliamentary
elections the can e$tend its reach to other parts of ndia. emocracy will be really
reinforced in our part of the world.
The writer is a lawyer, who has over ?0 years of e$perience as a )(: in both 7tate
and private sectors. 'e retired from the office of 7ecretary, 6inistry of Dinance and
currently is the 6anaging irector of the 7ri an!a "usiness evelopment )entre.5